Calibrating your building platform

[jelleatprotospace 0]

After assembling your Ultimaker, and you have extrusion working and you have levelled your building platform with the paper under the nozzle trick (you did do that trick, didn't you?), you still have no proof that it can lay down that first layer hands-off.

Here is some gcode you can run to test if your bed is level enough, and the Z-height is set correctly. It will slowly lay down a single thread on the bed, moving from corner to corner.

You can test if it adheres right (try to rub it off) and is not blocked too much(depress the bed slightly with a finger and see if a large flow comes out). I assume that you are past the 'printing in mid air' and 'digging into the tape' stages. The head moves slow enough to allow you some time to turn the set screws.

 

 ;the silly forum is not allowing .gcode files, so you will have to cut&paste this code in a 'new' file in rep-g...M104 S240 ;Set temp but dont wait for it yetM92 E14 ;Old style E=mm out of the nozzleG28 ;home all axesG0 Z30 :move up a little to avoid making a mess on the bedG1 E100 F1000 ;Extrude some stuffG92 E0 ;set Extrusion too zero againG1 X10 Y10 E14 F500 ;Start first move to corner.G1 Z0.2 ;Common first layer height? Optionally set this to your normal first layer height.G1 X180 E184 ;and start laying that thread.G1 Y180 E354 ;you can twist the four screws now to make sure you get an even laydown all over the bed. G1 X10 E524 ;ideally, your bed should be level within 0.05mm (or even lower if your Z-resolution is lower)G1 Y10 E694 ;M3 screws move 0.5 with each turn, so your fine-tunig should be with less then 1/8 turns. G92 E10G1 X12 Y12 E14G1 X178 E184	G1 Y178 E354G1 X12 E524G1 Y12 E694G92 E10G1 X14 Y14 E14G1 X176 E184G1 Y176 E354G1 X14 E524G1 Y14 E694G92 E10G1 X16 Y16 E14G1 X174 E184G1 Y174 E354G1 X16 E524G1 Y16 E694G92 E10G1 X18 Y18 E14G1 X172 E184G1 Y172 E354G1 X18 E524G1 Y18 E694G92 E10G1 X20 Y20 E14G1 X170 E184G1 Y170 E354G1 X20 E524G1 Y20 E694

 

If your are satisfied with the results of your tweaking, you might hunt down some prefab gcode and while that is printing, you can get your feet wet with compiling some gcode of your own.

I hope that UM has released a newer version of rep-G, bundled with some working profiles, by the time you read this..

[nancyharger 0]

Hey it is good to know about it. Actually i am searching for it.Thank you.

[thomix 0]

Unfortunately my platform has a slight concave shape so the center is 100 um higher than the edges :(